Gardeners fear the fireblight disease as is is one of the most destructive and infectious disease available. The disease is caused by Erwinia amylovora. It is a dangerous disease because it can affect all parts of the plants such as the shoots, branches, blossoms, roots and fruits. Unfortunately this terrible disease only affects several plants that belong to the Rosaceae family. The family includes those shrubs and trees of the landscape planting, nurseries as well as orchards. The Rosaceae family consists of Amelanchier or the serviceberry, Chaenomeles or the flowering quince, cotoneaster, cretaegus or hawthorn, eruibotyra or loquat, malus or crabapple and apple, photinia, prunus or the plu,s, flowering almonds and cherries, pyrachantha, pyrus, rose and sprirea.
The symptoms of the fireblight disease are the water soaked of the bark, particularly at the blighted twigs. Then it turns darker, get sunken and finally dried. Some cracks can also be seen in the edges of the sunken area. Moreover, the branches and also young twigs will die from the terminal end. These twigs and branches will look like they are burned or at deep rusted color. Another symptom would be the bent branches that are nicknamed the shepherd’s crook. The dead leaves and fruits can be seen hanging on the branches of the Asian pear tree.
The fireblight disease usually enters the Asian pear tree via the natural openings of the tree itself. The wounds and flowers are the most likely areas for these openings. Once the disease has established inside the tree, the fireblight will quickly move to destroy both the current and older season’s growth. And then, with the help of the wind, pruning tools and rain, the fireblight can then spread to another plants which are still healthy. When the spring comes, the bacteria ooze out in order to attract different insects such as bees. These insects will then help the spreading of the disease to even a further area and thus more healthy plants will be infected.
In order to reduce the spreading of the disease during spring and summer, you need to prune out all the branches that are infected so that you will get 8 inches below the area that is damaged by the fireblight disease. However, you need to avoid the pruning when the Asian pear tree is wet. After the pruning, dip the tools into 70% alcohol to neutralize the bacteria and avoid the disease spreading via pruning tools.
